Theological Education - IATDC

The Anglican Way: The Significance of the Episcopal Office for the Communion of the Church
- October 2006

Preamble:

At this time in the life of the global Anglican Communion
tensions and rifts between Provinces – and bishops -- have seriously
impaired the fellowship (koinonia) of the baptised. The reasons for these
difficulties are complex and no one would imagine that it is an easy matter
to restore fellowship across the churches of the Communion. In such circumstances
we can forget that our life together is a gracious gift bestowed by the
Lord. It is a gift that serves the mission of God in the world and directly
impacts on the integrity and power of our witness to the gospel.

How can we proclaim one Lord, one faith and one baptism
when the gift of koinonia seems to be so easily set aside for a supposedly
greater goal? What can be more fundamental to our life on earth than our
essential interconnectedness with others and the world.[1] This
koinonia or oneness is given by God in creation and renewed in Christ and
the Spirit. It is a gift which subsists in the whole body of Christ prior
to its embodiment in an ‘instrument of unity’ or particular
ecclesial office. Furthermore, like all gifts of God, it can only be a
blessing as it is faithfully received and shared by all. It is critical
for this truth to be grasped by an often anxious and fearful Church that
seeks heroes and leaders to heal its inner life.

Bishops bear a particular responsibility for the maintenance
and nurture of koinonia. Their actions impact upon the whole body of the
faithful for we are all ‘members one of another’ (Romans 12:5).
The ordinal is clear that bishops of the Church have a great and grave
responsibility to the Lord of the Church for the fellowship of all the
baptised. Accordingly we offer these ten theses on the role and responsibilities
of bishops for the well-being of the communion of the whole church. In
the theses that follow it should be abundantly clear that the maintenance
of koinonia is not an optional extra or luxury for the episcopate. Rather,
at this time in our history the furtherance of koinonia bears directly
on the peace and freedom of the baptised. It is they who have been called
by God to bear witness to the glorious gospel of Christ in a broken and
violent world hungry for peace, freedom and healing.

The following theses identify the bishop’s ministry
in relation to the gifts and responsibilities that nurture and grow communion.
Thesis One sets the episcopate within the life of the whole church. Theses
two to seven identify aspects of the office of bishop. Theses eight to
ten focus on the place of the episcopate in the life of the Church. Our
overall concern is the significance of the episcopate for the maintenance
of communion in global Anglicanism. However, we also deal with local, diocesan
concerns, recognizing that the way a bishop fosters communion at
the micro level has implications for the way a bishop contributes to the
fellowship of the baptised at the macro level. It will be clear from the
theses that follow that the deeper issue concerns not only what a bishop
does but who a bishop is for Christ and the people. The significance of
the episcopate for the renewal of koinonia and mission is directly related
to how a bishop bears witness in life and service to the holy and triune
God.

Thesis One:The Bishop serves
the koinonia of the gospel into which the baptised are incorporated by
God the Holy Spirit

Through the gospel God calls all people into relationship
and establishes a covenant of love, mercy and justice. By baptism the people
of God become participants in the visible body of Jesus Christ. The bishop
is called to serve this new fellowship by actively fostering the koinonia
of the Body of Christ. Just as the eucharist is the focal event which connects
communities of faith together so the bishop is the focal person who links
communities of faith not only to one another but to the wider Church. As
a result the bishop has a universal and ecumenical role. This fundamental
theological truth challenges all parochial conceptions of the episcopate
that fail to transcend ethnic, social, and cultural realities in which
the episcopate is, by nature, necessarily embedded.

Bishops of the Anglican Communion have primary responsibility
for Anglicans. However, the nature of the episcopal office means that bishops
are called to lead the Church towards a deeper koinonia amongst all God’s
people, and in so doing represent the wider Christian community to the
diocese. This universal and ecumenical ministry belongs to the bishop’s
role as a symbol of unity. Yet this symbol is ambiguous because the Church
is divided and torn. In this context the bishop is a sign of a broken Church
looking to its Lord for healing and hope through the power of the Spirit.

Thesis Two: The bishop’s evangelical office
of proclamation and witness is a fundamental means by which those who hear
the call of God become one in Christ

Bishops in the Anglican Communion are called to proclaim
the gospel of Jesus Christ and provide oversight for the witness and the
mission of the Church in all its aspects. This evangelical office of the
bishop is founded upon the good news (evangelion). The bishop
encourages all God’s people to be bearers of the good news of Jesus
and practice personal evangelism through words and actions. This evangelical
office includes a prophetic element through which the bishop gives voice
to the concerns of a world that seeks justice and a creation that
needs care and renewal.

The bishop is called to cherish and nurture the evangelical
office always bearing in mind ‘how beautiful are the feet of
the one who brings good news’ (Romans 10:15, Isaiah 52:7). At
the heart of this witness is a threefold injunction: to know Christ; to
know the power of his resurrection; and to enter into the fellowship of
sharing in his sufferings (Philippians 3:10). This dimension of
the office gives a fundamental unity to all mission. It is symbolised
in the eucharist where the bishop gathers and sends the people to be witnesses
to the ends of the earth. Through this office the kingdom of God
expands and people discover their oneness in Christ the Lord and Saviour. Given
its centrality for the establishment of communion for all peoples it is
clear that the nature and character of the bishop’s evangelical office
will occupy a significant part of the collegial life of the episcopate.

Thesis Three: The bishop is a teacher and defender
of the apostolic faith that binds believers into one body

Bishops vow to guard the apostolic faith. The historic
succession in the episcopate is a sign of communion with the apostolic
Church through time and space. As witnesses to the ‘faith once delivered
to the saints’, bishops are expected to be more than guardians intent
on preserving orthodoxy; they are looked upon to be teachers who are able
to bring the Scriptures and the creeds of the Church to life in the present
day. Their effectiveness as teachers will depend upon the strength of their
own educational formation and upon their openness to the questions
and concerns of their contemporaries. Very often it is when the Christian
tradition interacts with new ways of thinking that previously forgotten
or unexplored aspects of Christian truth are disclosed. Growth in theological
understanding thus requires a lively memory of the Christian inheritance
and capacity to use this to interpret new facts and fresh experiences.
In this interaction new insights arise for faith. A bishop’s vocation
as a teacher is intertwined in a life of prayer and spiritual discipline. This
is the crucible in which wisdom is formed and courage found to apply
it to everyday life.

Bishops have a special responsibility to encourage attempts
to translate the historic faith into the language, ideas and stories of
the people. The aim of this is to foster a genuine inculturation
that produces both worship and theology that are accessible to the people.
Unless this happens the gospel is not understood, the Church does not put
down deep roots, and communion is weakened as apostolic teaching is misunderstood
and distorted. When it does happen, the flourishing of true faith fosters
genuine communion across cultures.

In licensing clergy and lay workers, bishops signify
that those whom they license are faithful ministers of the Word that gathers
and sends the people of God. This means that they must be well equipped
theologically for this ministry and mission. The bishop must ensure appropriate
theological education and ministerial formation for the diocese. Bishops
do well to raise up and support the work of theologians within their dioceses,
and to make continuing theological education a high priority for their
clergy and lay leaders. A scripture-formed people needs teachers and theologians
to help build up the faith of the community and provide resources for the
discernment of the Spirit in times of confusion and spiritual hunger.

Thesis Four: The Bishop has oversight (episcope)
of the household of God for the good order of the Church

Bishops are commissioned and sent to be stewards or
overseers of God’s household within their jurisdiction. They call
the people of God into the full expression of the diverse gifts and ministries
given by the Holy Spirit. They oversee processes of discernment and
selection of candidates for holy orders, ensuring they are well prepared
for their ministries, supporting them pastorally and practically, and providing
for the good order of ministry in the diocese.

Oversight includes sharing of responsibilities among
clergy and lay people. This involves mutual accountability, good communication
and willingness to learn from one another. This reciprocity between bishop
and people is reflected in the decision making processes of synodical life.
This pattern of working together is empowering for all and is a gift to
be nurtured at all levels of the life of the Church.

The bishop has to ensure the well-being (e.g., spiritual,
social, economic) of the diocese in service of its mission. Harnessing
resources, fund-raising and financial management of diocesan affairs involves
complexities of oversight requiring specialized ministries. Providing episcope
in this area highlights the administrative and managerial character of
the work of a bishop, somewhat akin to a CEO (Chief Executive Officer)
of a large organisation. Bishops ought not to underestimate the distorting
effects on their oversight of management models associated with the global
market economy. This can lead to a management ethos focussed on strategic
plans, goal setting, tasks, competition and successful outcomes. This
is appealing because it seems to offer clarity and control but the price
is often loss of the personal and relational dimension of ecclesial life. The
bishop who manages well is one who is aware of the danger of management
becoming the basic lens through which episcope is practised. This issue
raises a question of how bishops handle matters across diocesan and provincial
boundaries. At these levels even koinonia may become a thing to be ‘managed’ at
a distance (i.e., avoiding face-to-face relations) rather than resolutely
pursued together with patience.

Thesis Five: The bishop is called to coordinate
the gifts of the people of God for the building up of the faithful for
the furtherance of God’s mission

The bishop has the duty of coordinating and encouraging
the gifts and talents of all the baptised. The Spirit gives varieties of
gifts to all God’s people to build up the church for mission. In
the secular context of many cultures, success in life is mostly determined
against a background of ruthless competition and individualism. In the
church ‘we are all members one of another’ (Romans 12:5), and
gifts are not the property of any one person but reside in the whole body
for the purpose of strengthening the Church to serve God’s mission.

Sometimes bishops – like all people -- are threatened
by the gifts of their brothers and sisters in Christ. They can become
jealous, guarding all power and responsibility to themselves, and thereby
thwarting the work of the Holy Spirit. Personal prayer and discernment
of one’s own gifts, however, turns one to the nurture of the gifts
of others. When a bishop’s life is marked by joy in the ministry
of others that bishop will be able to share in ministry with other bishops
in a non-competitive and generous manner. This is a key to the building
of koinonia beyond the local diocese. Specialized training in team building
and collaborative leadership is critical.

Thesis Six: The bishop serves the koinonia of
the gospel through care, encouragement and discipline of the pastors of
the Church

To facilitate care of the people of God is fundamental
to the episcopal office. To do this the bishop has to know and be known
by all. Face-to-face relationships of generosity and graciousness
are vital for this is where trust is nurtured. Communion in Christ involves
sharing in holy friendship, in counsel, prayer and guidance as well as
visitation of parishes on special occasions, such as confirmation.

It is clearly not feasible for a bishop to be able to
get to know everyone. However, the bishop has a special responsibility
to care for the pastors who share in the bishop’s episcope. Caring
for the pastors includes attention to their welfare including practicalities
of life as well as their spiritual and vocational health, ensuring continuing
ministerial and theological education and ongoing formation. One of the
most important ways in which the bishop cares for the pastors is by being
an example in the development of habits of self-care and attention to the
spiritual disciplines. Such a witness draws people together and raises
their sights to new possibilities for freedom in the Spirit.

A bishop’s responsibility for the encouragement
and discipline of clergy is built upon an exchange of trusts that only
comes through patient companionship with others. This is the context in
which the bishop can offer guidance and admonition, and call the pastors
to honesty, care and mutual accountability. What is true in diocesan life
is true at the level of the Communion. Mutual accountability at the international
level is the result of a genuinely shared episcope, exchange of trusts
and mutual accountability at the diocesan level.

Thesis Seven: The bishop serves the koinonia
of the gospel through a ministry of mediation to recall the broken and
conflicted body of Christ to its reconciled life in him

Dealing with conflict is a significant feature of a
bishop’s work. Most obviously the Church is made up of frail and
foolish people. The upward call of Christ presumes we are sinners in need
of God’s grace, forgiveness and mercy. In this context, koinonia
is necessarily a partial and vulnerable reality. A bishop’s vocation
involves tending this koinonia through the wise handling of conflict. A
ministry of mediation in situations of conflict is relevant at local and
wider levels of the church’s life. The challenge for bishops is how
to harness conflicts so that through this process a deeper koinonia in
the gospel emerges. Learning to be a reconciler is a life-long task
and bishop’s may benefit greatly from special training in mediation.

Thesis Eight: The catholicity of the episcopal
office connects the baptised across boundaries of culture, class, gender,
race and lands and enables the church to realise its oneness in Christ

Catholicity means that the apostolic faith is expressed
in the diverse contexts of the world. The gift of God in Christ is for
all people, and the Trinitarian faith expressed in the doctrine and worship
of a particular church is to be that of the whole church. The bishop embodies
this catholic character of the gospel. This means that a bishop has
particular responsibility to strive for a reality in which the eucharist
in a diocese is one celebrated by and for the whole church. It is
ironic and a cause of sorrow that the sacrament of unity is an occasion
of division.

The catholicity of the office means the bishop is an
agent of the fullness of the one faith expressed through myriad local forms.
Inculturation that is authentic plumbs the heart of the Christian faith. This
requires active engagement with the local cultures so that any stumbling
blocks to the hearing, receiving and enacting of the Gospel be removed. When
this occurs the gifts of the people are harnessed for authentic mission
in that time and place. A bishop must truly know the local cultures and
values of the people that the bishop has been called to serve and lead.
This can be a real challenge, for the bishop is chief pastor within and
across particular ethnic, racial, and cultural contexts. Yet in this
role the bishop has to ensure that the one catholic faith finds expression
through these particular identities without becoming subsumed by them. The
catholicity of the office requires a way of life that is constantly in
dialogue with others (especially including other bishops) across many boundaries.

Catholicity also means that the decisions that come
from any local place are not simply ‘local’ decisions, but
affect all. Bishops have a particular responsibility to bring the church
catholic into local processes of discerning the apostolic faith. They also
have a responsibility to represent their diocese to the rest of the church,
to interpret to the Communion the realities of their local place. This
means explaining not simply the end results of decisions reached, but being
able to give theological explanation of the discernment of the Gospel in
the culture, and of the catholicity of such decisions. Bishops need the
courage and wisdom to be able to hear the voice of others whether within
or outside their contexts.

Thesis Nine: The bishop serves the collegial
life of the Church through the nurture of strong bonds with bishops of
the Anglican Communion and those who share episcope in other Christian
churches

The episcopate is by nature and calling collegial. An
Anglican bishop participates in an episcope shared with all other bishops. In
the first instance this occurs between the bishops in a diocese (i.e.,
diocesan bishop, assistant and suffragan bishops). Therefore
all are called into open relationship with each other in the Communion
and with those called to exercise episcope in the wider church. Collegiality
means more than working with those with whom one has an affinity. Rather
it involves seeing one’s ministry not as one’s own but as shared
with others. At a Provincial level, collegiality involves many practical
aspects of cooperative work, study and prayer, and shared responsibility
with Synods in Provincial governance. It has particular importance in contexts
where the Christian church is in a minority or in a multi-faith context.
The patterns of local collegiality-in-communion are a gift to the wider
Anglican Communion.

As bishops seek counsel, journey with each other, and
pray with and for each other, real relationships grow. But such solidarity
is a costly gift. Real relationships are fragile and tainted by sin. If
relationships amongst some bishops within a Province are fraught with tensions,
refusals of dialogue or other patterns of manipulation undermine collegiality.
It is no surprise that these weaknesses show up at the international level.
Yet it is of the essence of the episcopate that bishops give themselves
over to collegial mutuality in the service of communion. Given the present
state of the Anglican Communion it is the special collegial responsibility
of the bishop to be at prayer for and with fellow colleagues. This is particularly
relevant for those bishops who are in conflict with one another. Their
failure to attend fervently to this ordinal vow weakens the body of Christ
for which they have responsibility. This in turn weakens the bonds
all the baptised share with one another.

Thesis Ten: A diocesan bishop is given responsibility
for episcope in the particular place where the bishop is principal Pastor

It is important for the coherence of the mission of
the Church that in one place there should be only one principal or chief
Pastor. Within particular and complex circumstances (for example, where
indigenous people have been subjugated), it may be necessary, with the
consent of the chief Pastor, to provide a specific pastoral ministry of
support to a section of a population. However, sight should never be lost
of the desirability that a Christian church in a particular place should
be a single assembly of people of all kinds.

There are occasions when a church falls out of sympathy
with its bishop on a matter of doctrine or conduct. It must not be the
case that the mere fact of ease of modern communication and travel becomes
the excuse for choosing a leader in another territory to be one’s
chief Pastor. In the case of serious and extensive conflict, it becomes
the duty of a diocesan bishop to provide pastoral support in particular
congregations. When a diocesan bishop fails to undertake this duty
the matter becomes a provincial responsibility.

Conclusion

The theses outlined above cover the broad range of episcopal
responsibilities. There will undoubtedly be matters that have not
been dealt with that are significant for bishops in the exercise of their
daily office. The intention throughout has been to reflect on the
nature of the episcopate in relation to the issue of communion. This
focus has been explored at the diocesan level and in relation to the Communion. We
are convinced that how a bishop handles the complex and delicate issues
surrounding the koinonia of the Church at the local level of the diocese
will influence the way a bishop nurtures communion beyond the diocese.

We have tried to offer a brief outline for a theology
of the episcopate that is grounded in the received wisdom from scripture
and tradition and also alive to the realities that bishops face as they
serve the Church’s koinonia in the gospel. The theses are incomplete
and are currently being developed more intentionally in relation to the
scripture tradition and the ordinal. Where relevant we have also
tried to indicate areas that might become subject of training and professional
development for bishops. More detailed work is currently being conducted
in this area by other bodies in the Communion.

We offer this present document as a work in progress. We
hope that we have provided a small resource to promote discussion and learning
concerning the character of the episcopate. Throughout the diversity
of episcopal practices, attitudes and ways of leadership we wonder if there
might be room for reflection on the idea of an ‘episcopal character’ along
similar lines to what has been referred to as the ‘baptismal character’?
We hope and pray that the bishops of the Anglican Communion may find it
useful in their difficult but sacred calling to serve the Lord of the Church
who desires that all may be one in Jesus Christ.

[1] The terms ‘koinonia’ and ‘communion’ can
become so much a part of the discourse of a fractured and divided church
that they loose their force and significance. Koinonia has to do
with a fundamental connectivity between God, the world, and all living
things, including of course human life. The African word ‘ubuntu’ captures
something of this primary oneness. In the Genesis story human beings
are called ‘earthlings’ or ‘groundlings’ (Genesis
2). This underscores the fact that we are ‘of the earth’ and
are intrinsically related to other living things, the whole created environment
and God. Such koinonia is encoded into the very being of creation. The
story of redemption is a story of Christ rejoining people, races and the
rest of creation. This is the good news which overcomes sin and broken
bonds. There is no other community on the earth with a mandate to bear
witness to the remarkable miracle of our oneness in the triune God. What
is even more remarkable is that God invites the body of Christ to become
the new experiment in the communion of the Holy Spirit. Bishops serve this
koinonia which is nothing less than the way of creation, salvation and
the life of the world to come.